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Red Wings without several regulars at practice

Wednesday, 04.23.2014 / 3:01 PM
| Dan Rosen
- NHL.com Senior Writer

DETROIT -- Two of the three star players missing from the Detroit Red Wings practice Wednesday are expected to play in Game 4 on Thursday at Joe Louis Arena (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN, NESN, FS-D). The other is in question.

The Red Wings trail the Boston Bruins in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round series 2-1 after a 3-0 loss Tuesday.

Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk and defenseman Niklas Kronwall missed practice because they were on baby duty. Datsyuk's wife recently gave birth to a girl, and Kronwall's girlfriend was in labor at the time of practice.

Forward Daniel Alfredsson, who missed Game 3 because of an upper-body injury reportedly related to his back, was not on the ice, and Detroit coach Mike Babcock said he did not have an update on the veteran's condition because he didn't ask for one from the team doctors Wednesday.

Alfredsson has not practiced or played since Game 2 on Sunday.

"You know what, I made it a point that I didn't ask anybody [Wednesday] on purpose," Babcock said. "I figured if I didn't ask anybody any questions it buys me until [Thursday] to decide what I want to do first."

Babcock said he would assume Datsyuk and Kronwall are playing Thursday because, "Why wouldn't they? They're not giving birth."

NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mobile name and logo, NHL GameCenter and Unlimited NHL are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.